January 6, 2010

Ghostly Haunts #32 [1973]

"The Shetabi Legend" is an 8-page Joe Gill scripted story drawn by Ditko. Winnie the Witch narrates the story of a pair of researchers who go into the Canadian northwest to investigate some old legends about a large, hairy beast named the Shetabi, basically Sasquatch. An old native takes them to the mountains, where one of the men gets injured when a storm comes up. Their guide leaves them, and then they encounter the Shetabi, who ends up taking them to safety in a cave.

Kind of an odd second half to the story, as the structure really seems to imply that the old native turned into the Shetabi, but that turns out not to be the case. So an unexpected twist is always good.

Ditko's art is excellent in the stormy mountains, really detailed and expressive. I especially like the first panel of page 6, seen below, a great use of heavy blacks and key details to set the mood of the scene.